College Access and Afterschool Programs: Perfect Together?

March 13, 2013

Two NCAN
members participated in a Feb. 8 briefing at the U.S. Capitol on “Fostering College and Career Readiness through
Afterschool and Expanded Learning Opportunities,” hosted by the American
Youth Policy Forum. The
briefing illustrated how college access programs and out-of-school-time
programs, which have traditionally thought of themselves as quite different,
can integrate their efforts to increase college access and success. The Starfish
Initiative, in Indianapolis, Indiana, provides
four years of support to promising low-income students through programming that
includes dedicated mentors, college campus visits and college and career
readiness assessments. Eighty-two percent of Starfish program participants have
graduated from college or are still enrolled. The Indiana
Statewide Afterschool Network, in
collaboration with the Indiana Department of Education and the Indiana
Commission on Higher Education, has made college and career readiness an
explicit aim in its statewide efforts through the development of college and
career readiness afterschool standards and other tools to help afterschool
programs across the state. After
School Matters, in
Chicago, Illinois, provides project-based apprenticeship opportunities for
public high school students through a network of public-private partnerships
that enable students to gain valuable career exposure and skill
development. For more information about afterschool programs and
career-college readiness, see this recent article by Betsy Brand and Andrew Valent of the American Youth Policy Forum,
which highlights the work of NCAN member Citizen
Schools.